Healthy Living News—Fall 2021

Medical News
A Few Visits End
20 Years of Pain
CMC Pain Center works with patients
to target and treat causes
It was a beautiful summer day
in August, 1993. Floyd Dicey was
camping with his wife and young
daughter. They decided the best
way to spend time in the sun was
to enjoy the waterpark near their
campsite. One trip down the slide
changed Floyd’s life forever.
“The pool at the bottom of the slide
didn’t have enough water in it, so when
my daughter and I came off the slide
and into the water, I went straight
to the bottom and slammed my back
against the cement, suffering a slipped
disc,” recalls Dicey. “I got up and
knew immediately something was
very wrong.”
Floyd had surgery to repair the
disc, which led to more surgeries,
complications, and even infections
that required treatment and
pain management.
“I took oxycontin pills for 20 years,
but it just never really helped,”
says Floyd. “When they once
recommended a higher dosage,
I decided it was time to try
something else.”
Dicey didn’t want to take more
painkillers, but he wasn’t able
to fully function at his job as a general
contractor. “The pain was becoming
unbearable,” says Dicey. “On a scale
of one to ten, I was right at the top and
I couldn’t do anything for any period
of time. I was miserable.”
So he began to research his options.
That’s when he found Dr. Mohamed El-
Ansary and Ally LeGacy, APRN at the
CMC Pain Center. “They talked to me
about my options, and what
I recall about them both is that they
were so nice and compassionate
about my pain and discomfort.”
“His quality of life was impacted,”
recalls Dr. El-Ansary whose goal is
to treat the root cause of pain, not
cover it with medications. “Many
patients come to us with pain and
a lack of function and they are
dependent on narcotics. To have
good treatment, you need a good
diagnosis. That means a thorough
examination, listening to the patient,
and doing diagnostic images and
tests, if necessary.”
The solution for Dicey was
a combination of injections and
ablations—both of which are minimally
invasive, outpatient procedures.
The treatment essentially numbed
and deadened the nerves in his back
that were causing the worst of the pain.
Life is totally different for Dicey and
his family, which now includes threeyear-old
Sophia, his granddaughter.
“I can’t move as quickly as she can,
but at least I can move with her and
play and enjoy my time with her every
day,” says Dicey, who also works part
time with a local ride-share company
and occasionally does some general
contracting work.
“I can do a lot more than I could
when the pain was off the charts,”
says Floyd. “I am careful not to go
overboard, but I am active again
and the pain is nothing like what
it was before.”
His advice to those who suffer
from chronic and debilitating pain?
Make an appointment with the CMC
Pain Center.
“They made a huge difference
to my quality of life,” says Dicey.
“I have tried a lot of different pain
management over the course of 20
years of discomfort. Nothing really
worked for very long and I just couldn’t
keep taking more and more pills.
The Pain Center helped me and I am
so grateful to Doctor El-Ansary and
LeGacy. They are simply wonderful.”
Consult your primary care provider for
a referral to the CMC Pain Center.
Healthy Living
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